Paper is a powerful tool in creativity. Aside from being a place for effortless sketches, it can be folded and sculpted into three-dimensional works. Yulia Brodskaya is one artist who transforms the everyday material into wondrous and colorful creations. She does so with her amazing paper quilling art, which involves her coiling and shaping strips into a design. The practice dates back hundreds of years to the Renaissance but has had a recent resurgence thanks to artists like Brodskaya.

Since we last checked in with Brodskaya (last year), she’s continued to produce artwork that employs a variety of techniques. She will often curl the paper (one of the telltale signs of quilling), but her most striking approach involves tightly packing the paper strips into thin, angular arrangements that mimic the look and feel of an Impressionist brushstroke. It’s a beautiful collision of the two worlds, and it continues to push the age-old field of paper quilling forward in new and exciting ways.

Brodskaya shares her work in progress—including behind-the-scenes videos—on her Instagram page. Her videos are an incredible look at the hard work that goes into creating paper art of this caliber.

Yulia Brodskaya creates paper quilling art that is a contemporary twist on a technique that’s been around since the Renaissance.

Free Spirit

Free Spirit (detail)

Tough

Tough (detail)

‘Irises’ by Vincent van Gogh

Pond Leaves

Pond Leaves (detail)

See how Brodskaya works her paper magic in the two process videos below: